(Global Trade Review, London, 12 February 2025) The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) reflected on lessons from the collapse of a nickel mining project in Brazil, which faced soaring costs and plunging prices. Despite some financial exposure, EIFO says the experience will shape its approach to future commodity deals, particularly in critical minerals.
Denmark
ECAs support €1.08 billion green loans for Cadeler
(The Asset, Hong Kong, 3 January 2024) Oslo-listed offshore wind turbine installation company Cadeler has raised €1.075 billion (US$1.19 billion) via two syndicated green financing facilities with backing from export credit agencies (ECAs). The revolving facilities will be used to refinance Cadeler and Eneti’s existing debt, as well as finance merger-related costs. Ancillary lines have been set up to support the project-related letter of credit (LC) needs of the company, and term facilities will finance the upgrade of cranes on two of Cadeler’s O-Class offshore installation vessels. The financing for the crane upgrades has ECA backing from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (Eifo). A facility amounting to €425 million, which is backed by the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure), will be used to finance the acquisition of two new X-Class wind turbine installation vessels currently under construction in China.
EU greenlights Denmark’s export and investment fund
(ScandAsia, Bangkok, 18 May 2023) The European Commission has approved Danish measures to set up Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund. The fund has a total estimated value of over €4 billion. It aims at supporting economic development, competitiveness, innovation, and growth for Danish companies. Denmark notified the commission its plans to set up the fund, with an initial capital of up to €807 million. The fund will be established as a new, fully state-owned entity gathering three existing state-owned entities: the Danish Growth Fund, the EKF Denmark’s Export Credit Agency and the Danish Green Investment Fund.
Italy pushes to weaken European fossil fuel financing pledge
(Reuters, Brussels, 2 November 2022) Italy is attempting to weaken a pledge 10 European governments intend to make to stop export credit support for fossil fuel projects. The pressure from Italy comes as delegates from nearly 200 countries prepare for a United Nations climate change summit next week in Egypt, where world leaders will attempt to agree tougher action to tackle global warming. A group of ministers planned to make a joint statement on November 3rd committing to end public trade and export finance support for overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022. The countries, which together make up the “Export Finance for Future” group, are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Britain. [Delays in the statement’s release point to controversial negotiations.] A draft of the governments’ statement, seen by Reuters, said they would agree to end new direct official trade and export finance support for “exploration, production, transportation, storage, refining, distribution of coal, crude oil, natural gas, and unabated power generation”. Three sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters Italy had asked to remove the list specifying which fossil fuel activities would lose such support. “Italy objects that there is no consistency between the objective of achieving strategic autonomy from Russia and the impossibility of financing the necessary infrastructure,” an official briefed on Rome’s position told Reuters. Italy’s export credit agency SACE declined to comment. As countries attempt to balance fighting climate change with their short-term response to the energy crisis, some – including Germany – have suggested new investments in gas fields are needed. Countries are still negotiating the draft statement, which could change before it is published. Italy was the biggest backer of fossil fuels within the group, committing 8.4 billion euros in the period – with downstream oil and gas projects and gas-fuelled power plants among the projects. Italy is also moving to keep a Lukoil-owned refinery in business despite new sanctions against Russia kicking in next month. On September 30 the European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules, a €2 billion Italian scheme for the reinsurance of natural gas and electricity trade credit risk in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. A hard right coalition that includes pro-Russian voices just took power in Italy after running a campaign focused on energy costs and inflation.
Danish ECA EKF to back French offshore wind project
KfW IPEX-Bank, together with Crédit Agricole CIB, Banco Santander, S.A., Mizuho Bank, European Investment Bank (EIB), and the Danish Export Credit Agency (EKF), has decided to finance the 30 MW Eoliennes Flottantes du Golfe du Lion (EFGL) floating wind project offshore France. “Fixed offshore wind farms can only be operated economically up to a certain sea depth. Floating wind farms will open up deeper waters. This gives us the opportunity to expand offshore wind power much more and drive the decarbonisation of energy generation faster worldwide”, said Dr Velibor Marjanovic, member of the Management Board of KfW IPEX-Bank. The project, which is one of the world’s first commercially financed floating offshore wind farms, is located in the Mediterranean Sea, more than 16 kilometres offshore from Leucate, Aude, and Le Barcarès, Pyrénées-Orientales. It is scheduled to be commissioned at the end of 2023 and will operate for 20 years.
State aid: EU Commission approves Danish short-term export credit scheme
(European Commission, Brussels, 4 May 2022) The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, the reintroduction of a Danish short-term export credit scheme. Under the scheme, the Danish State can cover risks of single export transactions. The scheme was originally approved in April 2013, prolonged in December 2015 and expired in December 2020. In February 2022, Denmark notified its intention to reintroduce the scheme, which will run until 31 December 2025. The Commission found that the measure is necessary, as there is a lack of private insurers covering single export transactions (i.e. insurance provided on a transaction-by-transaction basis rather than on the entire export portfolio of a company)
EDPR and DEK ink debt funding for 149-MW Polish wind portfolio
(Renewables Now, Fresno, 18 January 2022) Renewable energy producer EDP Renewables (ELI:EDPR) said today it has sealed a deal to obtain debt funding for a 149.4-MW portfolio of wind projects in Poland. The project financing was arranged by the European Investment Bank (EIB), Spain’s Banco Santander and Caixabank SA. Denmark’s EKF acted as export credit agency (ECA) coverage provider. The obtained funds will be directed towards the development, construction and operation of six wind parks in southeastern, northwestern and northern parts of Poland.
EKF issues ‘biggest ever’ loan for Turkey railway project
(Global Trade Review, London, 8 December 2021) Danish export credit agency EKF has signed its largest ever export loan for the construction of a high-speed railway project in Turkey. The agency is lending €576mn to the Turkish finance ministry for the project. The loan is classified as green because the electric railway is categorised as sustainable under the EU’s sustainable financing taxonomy. The total value of the financing is €1.1bn, which includes contributions from Swedish public finance and export credit bodies EKN and SEK. Standard Chartered and several other commercial lenders are also involved in the deal, but their exact roles have not yet been disclosed.
European export finance alliance pushes for green incentives [eventually!]
(Global Trade Review, London, 24 November 2021) Seven European countries have pledged to promote reforms and encourage green incentives in the export credit sector, but dashed campaigners’ hopes that they would axe public finance for fossil fuels more quickly than the end of 2022 deadline set at the Cop26 conference. The Export Finance for Future (E3F) coalition, initially comprising Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK, held its second virtual meeting today, hosted by the Dutch government. Belgium, Finland and Italy also joined the alliance today, Dutch state secretary for finance Hans Vijlbrief told the summit following the nations’ closed-door talks. A statement expected after the meeting had not been published as of press time, but a draft seen by GTR said the E3F countries would collaborate on strategies to meeting a pledge signed by each at the Cop26 climate change summit to end public finance support for fossil fuels by the end of 2022. The E3F members provided €20bn in export finance for fossil fuel projects overseas between 2018 and 2020, according to data cited by Oil Change International, a campaign group, and ODI, a think-tank. This compares to €17bn for clean energy projects over the same period. Vijlbrief indicated that attendees at the closed-door meeting endorsed support for natural gas beyond the end of the [Cop26] 2022 deadline. “We all know gas will play a role for a couple of years in our energy supply, that’s no secret,” he said. Peder Lundquist, chief executive of EKF, Denmark’s ECA, told the summit that “logically you need some kind of transition”, pointing to natural gas as a “stable” energy source for power grids in less-developed countries that would struggle to handle a rapid shift to renewables. Deputy assistant for export finance at France’s Treasury directorate, Paul Teboul, said his government does not plan to end support for upstream gas projects until 2035.
Decarbonising Danish Export Credits
(Just Finance International, Aarhus, 25 May 2021) A forthcoming report from Just Finance International outlines recommendations to the Danish government for plans to phase out fossil fuel support for its export credit agency (ECA) Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF) and also for its broader international public finance support. Public development funds are meant to benefit people, climate and environment, but in reality they support some of the most destructive activities on earth. Coal power is the world’s most polluting energy source, and the largest contributor to climate change. Yet public funds are still financing new investments in coal and other highly polluting industries. In response to worsening climate change, the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has announced that financial and governmental support of high-emission sectors must be decreased, and climate resilience increased. The UN IPCC has made clear that all untouched fossils must stay in the ground and all subsidies must stop if the Paris climate goals are to be reached. In line with the Paris Agreement goals, governments and their institutions worldwide are taking steps to phase out fossil fuels. In this report, a screening of Danish ECA EKF’s portfolio shows that while its investments in fossil fuels are limited, it has several projects in high-greenhouse gas emission (GHG) sectors such as cement, hydropower and mining, and in the livestock and chemical sectors. It is also likely to increase its involvement in cement and hydropower in the coming years. Because export credit agencies are demand-driven, their portfolios reflect the applications they receive. Clear regulations are essential to prevent ECA support for fossil fuels and other high-emission sectors in the future.
